Request ID: FOI-1031-2122 Date published: 10 September 2021
You asked
Dear Transport for London,
Can you please publish your policy documents or legislation on the following; or if it is easier give me an explanation which would be equally acceptable?
1. Is a taxi driver plying for hire when then are parked up legally in a parking bay taking a break even though they have their taxi app switched on and are available to accept a job?
2. Is a private hire driver plying for hire when they are parked up legally in a parking bay taking a break even though they have their private hire app switched on and are available to accept a job?
3. Can you publish the legislation or tell me the part of the legislation which states a taxi driver is plying for hire when found standing in the street, but is not plying for hire when they are parked up legally in a parking bay?
We answered
Our ref: FOI-1030-2122/GH & FOI-1031-2122/GH
Thank you for your requests received by Transport for London (TfL) on 19 August 2021.
Your requests have been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy.
However, to be able to confirm whether we hold the information requested and to then provide a full response would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.
Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with requests if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. In this instance, we estimate that the time required to answer your request would exceed 18 hours which, at £25 per hour (the rate stipulated by the Regulations), exceeds the ‘appropriate limit’.
The requesting and provision of legal opinion and advice is conducted within the general course of business and so there is no central repository or reportable manner in which this information can be easily obtained. In order to ascertain whether we hold any information in response to your request we would need to manually review a significant volume of correspondence to consider what, if anything, fits within the scope of your request. This would be an extensive process for which it would be difficult to determine at what point we could be satisfied that we have exhausted all avenues of searching and therefore in a position to provide a full response. As a result the cost limit would be significantly breached.
It is perhaps also worth noting that the provision of legal advice is generally considered for exemption in accordance with section 42 of the FOI Act and so, even if it were found that information was held, it would be likely that this exemption would be strongly considered and possibly applied.
To help bring the cost of responding to your requests within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider refining your requests to concentrate on matters which are important to you.
Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, the Freedom of Information Act can only be used to request recorded information. TfL does not have to answer your question if it would require the creation of new information or the provision of a judgement, explanation, advice or opinion that was not already recorded at the time of your request. As previously explained, TfL does not generally provide legal opinions externally, and any legal advice which is held is likely to exempt from disclosure under section 42 of the Freedom of Information Act.
If you are not satisfied with this response please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Graham Hurt FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London